Page 12 of The Protector’s Heart

“Oh, you bastard,” Brynn said, grinning.

He snorted, looking down the hallway, his wolf whining. He didn’t like her ignoring him like that. Before he’d spent time at her house, she’d kept her distance, but now he was sure she was just trying hard not to look at him. Something had happened to change her mind about him.

Brynn spun in the chair and folded her arms across her chest, giving him a long look. “Acksel said you don’t want to sit here all day anymore.”

“I talked to him about it yesterday. I’ll still drive you to and from work, and pick you up for lunch anytime you go out to eat, but I won’t be stuck here when I need to deal with my company.”

“I’ll miss you hanging out here.”

“You’ll survive. If I don’t start paying more attention to my company, though, it might not make it.” He rubbed his temple, worry about Nila’s change in attitude clouding his mind.

“What’s up with Lucian? Mia said he hasn’t been around in months.”

Malachi made a face. “Mia shouldn’t worry about him.”

Brynn snorted loudly. “Oh, okay, then why don’t you stop worrying about Nila?” He gave her a confused look and she shrugged. “You can’t stop thinking about Nila, so why would Mia stop thinking about Lucian?”

He growled. “They are not mates. She has a childhood crush on him and needs to get over it.”

“Man, you’re a dick sometimes. You don’t know what she and Lucian are, because you’ve done your damnedest to keep them apart, what with your never-touch-my-sister rules. You can’t stop nature, Mal, no matter how hard you try. You should just let them get together and see what happens. If they’re mates they’re going to be together no matter what, and then you’ll be the jackass who kept them apart for all those years.”

“His life is too dangerous; she could become a target.”

Her brow arched. “Isn’t he like a scary-ass body guard or something like that? Luke is human and he kept Eveny safe from those wolves who tried to hurt her.”

“Don’t remind me.” Acksel’s only sister Eveny had been intent on going through the heat cycle alone in a family cabin in the mountains, and Acksel had attempted to intervene, telling one of the wolves where she was so he could ‘help her out,’ in her time of need. Instead, the wolf had gathered some friends and gone up there with the intention of brutally raping her, and it was only Luke’s intervention that kept Eveny safe. Luke’s protection of Eveny had begun the slow transformation of the pack from wolf-only to accepting of humans. Before Eveny and Luke became mates, a wolf in the Wilde Creek Pack would be banished forever for choosing a human mate. Now, with Brynn, there were two human mates in the pack, and Brynn’s status as alpha female went a long way toward helping the pack accept humans. It didn’t matter a bit to Malachi that Nila was human. She was his, and that meant he accepted what she was. A bit of bitterness swam through him. Didn’t Nila know that Malachi was her mate? Even if she was human, couldn’t she feel some kind of connection to him? Why couldn’t she look past what he was to the male he was inside, and see he was nothing like her ex?

“Wow, I’m sorry if I insulted you or something,” Brynn said, rubbing her arms and shuddering.

“What?”

“You’re growling, and your eyes are amber.”

He pressed his palm to his forehead and forced his wolf down. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to talk about Mia and Lucian anymore, okay? I wish a lot of things were different right now, the least of which is Lucian’s dangerous life and my sister’s interest in him.”

Brynn smiled softly. “It’s okay, Mal.”

The front door opened and a patient walked in. Malachi turned back to the laptop and went over security footage once more, just to give himself something to do so he didn’t obsess over Nila’s change in attitude.

Unfortunately he didn’t have much luck with that.

* * *

Nila pulled a bottle of apple juice from the refrigerator and poured some into a sippy cup, closing the lid and setting it on the highchair tray. There was a knock at the front door and her heart stopped in her chest for a long moment, before she reasoned that Damien would never knock. He’d bang his fists on the door and demand she open it.

Glancing at Jack and seeing him happily playing the drums on the tray with his plastic spoons, she walked quickly to the front door and looked through the peephole.

Malachi.

She’d spent the day pretending to be aloof about him. About lunchtime, she’d become aware that his mood had soured and he looked really unhappy. She knew her own behavior was to blame, and part of her had felt bad.

“What do you want, Malachi?” she called through the door.

“I said I’d upgrade your security system, and I’m here to do that.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Why?”

“I keep my promises.”

---